Integrated optics has brought unprecedented levels of stability and performance to quantum photonic circuits. However, integrated devices are not merely micron-scale equivalents of their bulk-optics counterparts.
The quantum properties of light can unlock a variety of enhanced and novel technological capabilities. Among these are secure communications, nonclassical simulation, nonlocal imaging, and pathway-selective exciton spectroscopy. Such quantum photonic technologies have traditionally been implemented on the bench top with discrete optical components. More recently, the need for improved scalability has fuelled widespread interest in the development of on-chip quantum circuits. Much of this work has concentrated on the generation, manipulation, and detection of entangled photon pairs, often with the goal of replicating tasks previously performed using bulk optics.
There may be a need, however, for a system and method for quantum photonics that is not subject to one or more limitations of the prior art. In some embodiments, there is a need for an integrated optical component that may support quantum photonics in place of conventional bulk optics.
This background information is intended to provide information that may be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.